Sonic CD 2
by The Luminoth
Summary: Long after the events of Sonic CD, Little Planet appears on Earth! This can't help but lead to trouble for Sonic and his friends, especially if Robotnik finds the Time Stones first! Chapters 1 and 2 updated! Chapter 3 added!
1. Ballistic Beach Zone

Sonic CD 2

Chapter 1: Ballistic Beach Zone

Today was a relatively peaceful day for the world's fastest hedgehog, Sonic, and a restful one as well. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy had just returned from a particularly dangerous mission to stop Dr. Robotnik from destroying the world, during which several of the heroes' lives were put in mortal danger, and so they decided that they needed the rest. At the current moment, everyone was asleep in Sonic's house. Tails was collapsed onto the floor, Amy was sprawled across the sofa, Knuckles was napping in a hammock outside, and Sonic was asleep, yet at the same time miraculously running on his treadmill. The TV was on, and the volume was blaringly high (Tails was leaning on the remote control), but everyone was so deeply asleep that they didn't notice anything. Unlike the rest of them, though, Dr. Robotnik was hard at work.

In Dr. Robotnik's lab, the mad scientist stood dumbfounded, looking into a telescope.

"What?" he shouted. "This can't be! This is too good to be true!" What first appeared to be anger revealed itself as perpetual glee as Robotnik looked once again into the eyepiece of the telescope. "This is perfect!"

One of the robots nearby, concealed in a shadowy corner, asked Robotnik about the situation. "What is it this time?"

"A small globe has come into orbit around this planet."

"What does that mean?"

Robotnik was willing to explain. "This specific planet is one that can defy the very sensitive bonds of the time-space continuum. For its size, it was called the 'Little Planet'."

"The Little Planet? I remember that place. It was the place where you first sent me to attack and destroy Sonic the Hedgehog…and we've been bitter rivals ever since." The robot walked out of the shadows, revealing itself to be Metal Sonic, rebuilt from ruins once again. "What makes you think that this attempt will be any more successful than the last?"

"Because we have a head start. Sonic and his friends will surely be tired out from the last time we fought. He won't know to raise a finger against me as I find the Time Stones and build my empire from the past forward!"

Metal Sonic did not understand. "The Time Stones?"

"You don't remember them? They have properties similar to the Chaos Emeralds, but they only appear on the Little Planet, and they allow the user to defy time. If I can capture them and bring them back to Earth, I can use them to control Earth. These gems' powers can be used anywhere, at any time. I can build time portals for my workers to pass through, then build a massive dominance on this planet before anyone can stop me!"

"I see. There is much logic to this plan. However…there is still one question that I have. If this planet can defy time, what guarantee do we have that it will stay here long enough for us to execute this plan?"

Robotnik paused before his reply. "We don't have any, which is why we must act quickly."

Sonic woke up suddenly with a strange feeling, like a sixth sense. Something was up, and he had to find out what.

The others were woken up by Sonic's somewhat noisy exit, and they asked him why he was leaving.

"I have to find out why I'm feeling this. I think it has to do with a place I haven't been in a long time."

After much conversation, Tails convinced Sonic to take some help with him in the form of the _Tornado_, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. Sonic then shot forward with supersonic speed towards the place where his odd sense was directing him to.

Tails was flying the _Tornado_ and keeping a surprisingly even pace with Sonic. Amy sat in the biplane's back seat, and Knuckles was standing on the top wing. Noticing Sonic stop, Tails slowed to a halt and landed, with the engine still idling as everyone but Tails got out. "What's up, Sonic?"

Sonic had little response other than to lift a shaky finger toward what loomed ahead. To Tails and Knuckles, it looked like a metallic sphere similar to the Death Egg, covered completely with machinery, and suspended freely in the air. Sonic and Amy, however, knew that the giant floating sphere was more than that. It was a planet, but a very small one, self-contained and constantly on the move, yet always in orbit around a larger celestial body. Since the planet could defy time and land anywhere completely at random, Sonic and Amy knew that an occurrence like this wouldn't happen again for many years, possibly never again. The Little Planet had arrived at Earth.

"What is that thing?" Knuckles asked incredulously. "Robotnik couldn't possibly have built that since we saw him last."

"He didn't build that. It's a planet," Sonic replied. "That's why I feel this odd sense inside of me. That planet, called the Little Planet, has the ability to defy time. It also contains seven powerful gems called the Time Stones, which are much like the Chaos Emeralds, except that they allow the user to defy time. That's what I felt. It's like the Time Stones are calling out to me. They're in danger. Robotnik's found out about the planet, and he's coming to take the Time Stones. I have to stop him, but I have to go alone. I won't risk anyone else, like I did the last time I went there." When Amy heard this, she took a step backward. "I have to face Robotnik alone." Sonic suddenly looked quite happy, possibly even excited. "Robotnik's probably rebuilt Metal Sonic again, so maybe we can have a rematch." Sonic grinned and looked expectantly toward the planet. Suddenly it began to change, fading from the metallic wasteland it was—or, rather, will be—to the lush paradise that it is "now".

Understanding what Sonic intended to do, Tails got out of the _Tornado_ and let Sonic get in and have the controls. Sonic flew toward the planet, making sure that he landed on its northern hemisphere so that gravity would remain relatively unaltered. By now the time was night as Sonic got out of the plane and surveyed the landscape around him.

Sonic had landed on a smooth beach, which faded into hilly grassland covered with palm trees. There was a strategy in mind when Sonic landed: the area was similar to the place where he first got onto the Little Planet.

With a running start, Sonic launched into the grassland ahead. He noticed that it was infested by robots modeled after various insects. Destroying one revealed a spark, which sprouted a flower when it touched the ground. Sonic destroyed a couple more robots, which looked like beetles and mosquitoes with long, needle-like noses, and a few more flowers appeared. Seeing an odd sign that read, "Past," Sonic ran through it and could have sworn he heard a voice shout the word "past" into his ear—just like last time. Noticing a line of gold rings, Sonic grabbed them, and then found a loop leading into an underground tunnel perfect for ramping massive speed for a long distance.

As Sonic started to run, he felt the energy he collected from the sign around him. It was a familiar feeling to him. He continued to run through the loop and ran straight into the tunnel, rolling into a ball at just the perfect time to avoid having his head lopped off by the roof of the tunnel. The energy around Sonic became stronger as he exited the tunnel and launched into the air from its vertical exit. In the middle of his flight, Sonic unrolled from his ball form and saw everything around him replaced by flashing light of many different colors. The energy around him felt at its strongest just before it bottomed out to nothing. The colors faded away and Sonic saw the landscape around him replaced by one of slightly darker colors, shorter trees, and fewer of Robotnik's henchmen all over the place. Sonic had entered into the past of the same area he was in.

Just as soon as he entered the world of the past, which happened to occur at noon, Sonic saw a machine that looked like the top and bottom of a rounded rectangle with three bolts of electricity connecting the top and bottom. Sonic jumped into it, spun, and destroyed it. All of the enemies near him were destroyed as well. Continuing onward, Sonic saw something strange—he saw himself, a couple of years younger, running toward a signpost with Robotnik's face on it. The younger Sonic was being tailed by something pink, wearing a green shirt and an orange skirt—it was Amy. The older Sonic contemplated attempting to contact his younger self, but then remembered that he had, at the point his younger self was at, never seen any odd foresights of himself. He decided that it was best that he not meddle with the past, lest it adversely affect the future. Sonic decided that the only thing he would change in the past would be the presence of Robotnik's robot-making machinery.

With that plan thought out, Sonic turned back on his path and sighted another sign, this one marked, "Future." Sonic ran through it and heard voices again; except that this time they said, "future," just as Sonic remembered it. Without waiting any longer, Sonic found the past variation of his speed tunnel, surprisingly existent already, and ran through it again. The flood of colors once again surrounded Sonic, and was soon replaced by the area he was in at first, albeit without a single Badnik in sight. Sonic found another "Future" sign and ran through it, keeping his pace and jumping over rocks and hills on occasion, until he was for the third time swallowed whole by the bright colors of time travel. This time he was spit out in an idyllic forest of palm trees, without anything even relatively evil in sight. Even Robotnik's face was gone from the sign, replaced by a picture of Sonic, which could only mean that the past form of himself had already been and gone. Sonic passed the sign, which made a large gold ring appear.

Sonic knew what had happened. Since the future was good, Robotnik's secret hiding place for the Time Stones was revealed. Sonic was relieved, yet at the same time afraid; if a Time Stone hiding place existed, Robotnik had probably captured a Time Stone or two and placed it there.

After passing through the ring, Sonic found himself in a flat area filled with land, and with water dotted throughout. Also spread throughout the mysterious landscape was about a half-dozen of purple spaceships. Sonic was prepared to do what he had always done here: destroy the UFO's, one by one, until they were all gone; then the Time Stone would reveal itself. Sonic destroyed all six of the ships and got the Time Stone, a green one. He was then swiftly returned to the regular world, in the same time frame he entered it in, just in time to face Robotnik. The insane scientist was coming toward the past version of himself in a walking machine with two springs for hands.

Sonic was confused for a second, and thought that he always faced Robotnik in the future; and because of this, how could both himself and his younger self be in the same place? Then Sonic had an idea: maybe he didn't face Robotnik in the "future" necessarily; maybe he always faced Robotnik in the same time frame, and this frame just happened to be the future to Sonic back then. Sonic noticed that Robotnik acted just as he would when Sonic last saw him, but the scientist was garbed in an outfit Sonic had not seen him in for years. That, Sonic reasoned, must have been a negative result of an overly complete time warp. Fortunately, Sonic's was incomplete enough that his physical style was not hindered, or brought too far ahead, by performing a simple time warp.

The young Sonic managed to beat Robotnik quickly enough that the older Sonic needn't do anything else; instead, he just ran in a line after his younger self, until the Time Stone, usually temporarily stored in a small alternate dimension until it was needed, suddenly appeared in front of Sonic and began to spin rapidly, creating a huge flash of light.

When the light faded away, so did the Time Stone, and Sonic found himself in the same time as before. Looking up, Sonic realized that the ground of Earth was above him, meaning that he must be on the bottom of the Little Planet.

Sonic soon came to another realization: Earth wasn't above his head; Mobius was! The Little Planet's time on Earth was complete, and Sonic noticed that the ever-familiar Never Lake was the area that the tiny sphere had landed next to. Even more to Sonic's horror was that the lake was surrounded by machinery, meaning that Robotnik had noticed the move sooner than Sonic, and had taken advantage of his Time Stones to move back to the past and set up a fortress.

Back on Earth, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy looked shocked as the Little Planet, which Sonic was still on, flashed a few times and disappeared, leaving only a handful of sparks as evidence that it had ever been where it was. They knew that Sonic was in trouble if he was still up there with Robotnik; he could be in any time and almost anywhere in the entire universe!


	2. Ancient Acropolis Zone

Chapter 2: Ancient Acropolis Zone

As the Little Planet maintained a speedy orbit around Mobius, Sonic saw Never Lake above his head soon replaced with ancient ruins that caught his eye. At the sight of this, Sonic returned to the _Tornado_ and started it up. Once it was started, he flew it down to the surface.

Once Sonic reached the ruins, he recognized them. The crumbling purple stone had become duller and fallen apart more over time, and some of the abundant lava had solidified and formed new rock surfaces, but Sonic still recognized the area he once knew as the Marble Zone. Despite the fact that the area was recognizable, some of the passages were blocked off by solidified igneous rock. Sonic took out one of the Rings he had grabbed before and used it to attempt a spindash into the rock face. Despite his best efforts, the rock wouldn't move, and would only barely scratch.

Discarding the spent Ring, which no longer glowed of its own accord, Sonic took out another and tried again to drill into the impediment of basalt. The rock cracked far enough down that Sonic could dig in a few inches deep. Seeing that even this didn't lead to the other side of the rock, Sonic gave up and sat for a while in deep thought.

Dr. Robotnik was flying away from the beach in his slightly damaged hovercraft when he noticed that the constant background of Earth had vanished and was replaced by a place he was also familiar with. It took a few seconds for Robotnik to realize that he had landed on his old home, Mobius, but once he did, he sent new orders to Metal Sonic. "Great Egg to Steel Hog, Steel Hog come in."

"Yes, Great Egg?"

"The planet has moved through time and space. I need you to track down Sonic the Hedgehog on the surface above us. He's probably gone down there; he'll be more familiar with the landscape than I am, but you have advanced search equipment that he won't be counting on. Tell me when you find him."

Metal Sonic saw a flaw in the plan. "What if he has stayed on the planet in anticipation of you making this move?"

"I'll scan the surface in case he's stayed here. If he's here, I have sufficient forces to either defeat him or force him to the surface, where you'll be waiting."

"Copy that. Steel Hog out."

Sonic was still thinking when he opened his eyes and looked around. If he could find something holding back a lava flow, he could try to melt through the rock. With this in mind, Sonic looked out across the area around him. Not much out of the ordinary…a pile of rocks, another cave that was blocked off, a past sign like the ones on the Little Planet, a vertical cliff covered with slippery limestone—_A past sign! _ Sonic realized as a new idea overcame him. He could use that sign to warp into the past, and once he was there he could navigate the area he was more familiar with.

Sonic ran through the sign and was surrounded once again by the energy he was by now readjusted to. Keeping a steady pace across the field, Sonic ran across mineral deposits that had once been pools of lava without thinking twice. As he sprinted down a slope, he felt like he had just been launched into the air and was surrounded by flashing lights and intense energy once again. When he "landed", he was in a place he was considerably more familiar with. There was a slope behind him that he was sure would send him up to a series of lava pools; a ledge above him that held nothing of interest; and immediately before him, a gaping pit loomed. Sonic jumped down into the pit, confidant that he would know the way around once he got down there. Indeed, Sonic felt as much at home here as he would have felt back in his house on the outskirts of Station Square. He was reminded now of his friends. What would they think had happened to him after the time warp?

Back on Earth, Tails and Knuckles were slightly confused by Amy's thoughts on the situation. They tried to understand, since Amy had more experience on the Little Planet than any of them, but Amy's best explanation was that, "when the planet is about to go away it spins and flashes, then it goes away to somewhere else. I remember watching it whenever it came by." Despite the fact that this lent some interesting insight onto Amy's past, it didn't help Tails and Knuckles come any closer to figuring out where the planet went.

Tails was at a loss. If he had one of the Time Stones that Sonic was talking about, he could trace their energy signature to the Little Planet. Then, Tails remembered something else that Sonic had mentioned while explaining the Little Planet. "…the Time Stones, which are much like the Chaos Emeralds…" If the two types of gem were similar enough, Tails could try to use one to trace the other!

Sonic continued to fight his way through the underground ruins of Marble Zone. There were just as many robots there as there ever was, and Sonic was determined to find the place they were generating from. When he reached a second pit, he looked down it and saw himself again, a bit younger than he was before, start to run frantically away from the pit. Mere seconds later, the older Sonic realized what his younger form was running from. A large wave of magma had started to flow through the tunnel after him! This, Sonic realized, was how the tunnel in the present had been blocked. Yet, older Sonic's situation had not improved; his path was now blocked by molten rock instead of solid rock. At the realization that he was at a dead end, Sonic headed for the surface again.

Once Sonic found the open air, he looked up the ledge he had seen before. There was nothing up there, but maybe it could help anyway. Sonic jumped up to it, then tried to jump to the ledge above that, but he couldn't reach. He tried to climb the wall, but that didn't help either. Picking up a sharp stone, Sonic had yet another brainstorm. He leapt into the air and jammed the rock into the dirt wall, then shoved in another a few inches to the left of the first one. With the rocks in place, Sonic grabbed them and climbed up, supporting one of his feet on each one. From his new platform, he jumped up and reached the ledge, where he found Robotnik's factory. He destroyed it and continued on, when the ground below him began to collapse.

Sonic fell through the open ground and hit the floor in the cave a couple stories down. The fall caught him off guard, and he was slightly dazed by the impact, but he soon recovered and found a Future sign. The ground he had fallen in on was slowly sinking; it had landed in magma and was slowly melting away. Sonic took the opportunity to run across the temporarily level ground and catch enough speed to warp through time.

Once he was back in the present, Sonic found himself underground in the crumbling ruins. The shaft of basalt that he had tried to break through was behind him, though Sonic couldn't see it. Sonic couldn't see anything because all of the magma had solidified since his last visit, removing the glow of molten rock. Out of what seemed to be nowhere Sonic's Time Stone appeared in front of him and glided into his hand. Sonic's hand, holding the Time Stone, then raised itself as if it were guided by the Time Stone itself until the gem was casting radiance onto the dry rock surface below. Then, the Time Stone cast a green beam of light over the rock, causing it to change. It was drying in reverse, turning back into a liquid! The magma directly under the shine of the stone was going back in time to when it was a glowing liquid, and the lava cast its light throughout the cave. Sonic now noticed the igneous wall that was an impediment to him before, and that the cracks formed from outside ran all the way through to his side. None of them were large enough to let light through, but Sonic was still impressed, since he now knew that the wall was several yards thick, formed from the lava wave.

With the machine destroyed, Sonic had an easy time getting through the underground area. Despite this, he found no exit. All he found was a Future sign. Sonic thought for a moment, unsure how to proceed, but decided that he should pass the sign and try to go to the future. Unfortunately, the area that lay before him was a row of swinging platforms over a short channel of magma. Sonic decided to let timing and luck carry him through, so he ran out and made a long jump for a platform. He landed right on it, but at the pace he was moving at, he barely had a second to spare before jumping again. Before he hit land on the other side, Sonic felt the energy surround him again. He was going to the future.

When Sonic arrived in the future, he saw that he was surrounded by high-tech machinery. A sturdy metal bridge led across the magma behind him, and Sonic could see that geothermal energy was being collected from every magma pool. Some of the original walls remained intact; however, some were supported by metal structuring and others had been completely replaced. Climbing a small shaft, Sonic saw that a floating block that he had once used to cross the magma stream before him was replaced by a pulley lift. Sonic couldn't figure out the controls, so he just jumped up and grabbed onto the pulley cable.

This method of transportation was working well until Sonic got about halfway across the magma, when it began to lower. As Sonic's feet dangled dangerously close to the magma below, Sonic saw that the cord was breaking. Sonic panicked, but then he remembered that he still had one Ring left. At first not seeing how they could help, Sonic realized that he could use it to propel himself back to the platform he started on. Once Sonic was there, he summoned the Time Stone from its dimension and used it to cast a beam onto the magma. Sonic hoped to use it to speed up time and form rock to walk on, but the Time Stone seemed to only reverse time, not speed it up. Sonic was surprised when he saw the floating block that he had remembered materialize in the magma in front of him. He used it to cross, and it was not long after that until Sonic reached the surface. Seeing a sign in the distance, Sonic ran for it and watched another giant warp ring appear. Sonic jumped into it and was taken to another alternate dimension.

Sonic saw that this time the water was bright red. The area was not familiar to him; this was a new area. Sonic ran around, destroying UFOs again, and this level proved no harder than the last. Sonic was once again able to reclaim a Time Stone. This one was orange, and Sonic figured that it would have an effect different from that of the green one.

Robotnik looked toward the screen of his machine. It indicated that now two of Robotnik's six Time Stones were missing! All of the news wasn't bad, though. Systems indicated that the seventh Time Stone had been found and stored, and Sonic was entering Metal Sonic's radar range. Fortunately, one of the Time Stones had been equipped to Metal Sonic, so he could warp at will between time frames. Finding Sonic—and escaping if the fight got out of hand—would be no problem.

Sonic was running away from the technology behind him when he almost ran into something that seemed to appear from nowhere in front of him. Looking ahead, Sonic was struck with a bit of surprise at the sight of Metal Sonic. "So, that crazy doctor rebuilt you again? How many times do I have to show him that you're no match for the real Sonic?" Sonic taunted.

"That is merely the past," Metal Sonic replied. "This time, I have been given direct orders and a few interesting modifications. It should be more than enough to handle something small and insignificant, such as you, for example."

Sonic grinned and accepted the challenge. "Well, then, maybe you won't be as weak this time!" Sonic then prepared a spindash. Metal Sonic saw and did the same. They launched against each other and bounced in opposite directions. Metal Sonic unrolled and skidded to a halt, while Sonic made a U-turn while spinning and hit him from behind. Metal Sonic was sent reeling back a few feet and landed hard on his face. "That's what I never understood about you," Sonic heckled in victory, "You could never hold a spindash for very long."

"We'll meet again," Metal Sonic promised. After that, he disappeared in a flash of light.

"What a coward—he couldn't even stick around and chat!" Sonic exclaimed as he ran off toward a bright light ahead. The sky was darkening and Sonic would need a place to rest.


	3. Chance City Zone

Chapter 3: Chance City Zone

By the time Sonic reached the light he had seen in the distance, the sun had disappeared from the sky completely, and the darkness of the night was in full effect. Sonic had realized soon after entering the realm of flashing lights and casino sounds that he wouldn't be getting much rest, but why rest when there's an insane scientist to be stopped? Sonic had also realized something else: he had been here before. Way back, when he first met Tails, this was one of the places that Robotnik had taken over. The casino had actually been one of the more fun areas, and the night really helped set the stage, just as it did now. The workers here had done a nice job of cleaning up the place; but in retrospect, it wasn't that badly wrecked to begin with. The only thing that the place was better without were the spikes—in fact, even the crab robots had been reprogrammed for cleaning duty.

Because of this, Sonic was shocked when he saw several robot attackers appear out of nowhere and invade the place. They resembled insects once again, including moths and grasshoppers. Robotnik must have taken over this place as an afterthought. Sonic also realized that the enemies matched those that Robotnik had used in one area of the Little Planet—an area much like this one, in fact. Despite these ruminations, Sonic jumped across the first moth and wiped it out. Sonic expected it to drop a seed and sprout a flower, like the one on Little Planet, but it didn't. Instead, an animal came out, like in Robotnik's usual robots.

Continuing on, Sonic noticed another addition. A past sign was set up next to a strange machine that looked like some sort of teleporter. Sonic stepped onto the outer edge of the machine's platform, and to his surprise, Sonic didn't disappear and reappear somewhere else. Instead, he began to run in an uncontrollable circle. Sonic wondered what purpose such a machine could possibly serve, until he remembered the past sign.

Recalling how the signs' energy was activated, Sonic jumped off of the machine and backed up, then ran back onto the machine, touching the past sign on the way. Just as he had predicted, Sonic began to feel the energy generated by his speed swell around him, reach a high point, and stop. Sonic stopped running and looked around. He was in the past, and the casino was just the way he remembered it.

Now in the past, Sonic continued through the zone. Seeing a giant pinball setup, Sonic decided that he deserved a break. He jumped onto a giant flipper and it launched him toward a target higher up on the table. Sonic was about to be pulled in when gravity backfired and he fell back down. Sonic tried again, this time from the opposite side, and made it into the target. A large slot machine above him activated, and two of the reels landed on Ring icons. Just as Sonic was getting excited, the last reel landed on Robotnik's face. Sonic didn't win anything, and was dropped from the machine into a pit at the bottom of the machine.

The ramp led toward the right side of the pinball table, but then dropped into one going in the opposite direction. That ramp led to a pit with a spring at the bottom, which caught Sonic, pulled back, and let go with astounding force. The force, when combined with the fact that Sonic was still rolled into a ball, caused him to be launched through a loop, grabbing some Rings along the way, and out to a flat area. Sonic was about to ram into something when he stopped, and he only just caught himself.

The thing he was about to hit was a crab robot, just like when Sonic first came here. The difference was that Robotnik was wiser this time—the robot was equipped not with a spring shield, but with a nasty claw. Wherever Sonic moved, the claw moved into his way. Sonic was at a loss until his orange Time Stone came out of its dimension and went into Sonic's hand, just like the green one did when Sonic got close to the magma in the last area he went to. It then shone upon the robot, and the robot became a pacifist. It pulled out a broom from nowhere and began to sweep the floor around it.

Sonic caught on quickly: the green Time Stone was capable of causing objects to go back in time, like the rock in the last area, which returned to a magma state. The orange one was the opposite; it caused objects to go forward in time, to the way they would be several years from the current time. This particular event caused the crab robot to become the one-robot cleaning crew that it would eventually be reprogrammed into. Sonic then heard footsteps behind him and jumped for a high ledge where he wouldn't be seen.

Sonic was briefly surprised by the identity—or rather, identities—of the coming travelers. They were Sonic and Tails! Sonic remembered that he was in the future, and that he could see the past version of himself from time to time. Tails was in the middle of saying something to Sonic from the past.

"…were so fun! We have to go back!" Tails pleaded.

Sonic from the past replied, "We can't go back and play pinball again, Tails. We have to get to Robotnik quickly!"

"Aww…"

Sonic from the past continued on, and Tails reluctantly followed. Sonic from the future remembered this moment while resisting the urge to jump down and scare both of them out of their socks. Sonic didn't remember seeing himself do that in the past either, so he didn't. Yet the situation made him wonder how modern-day Tails and the others were doing back on Earth…

Tails was at a large computer in his workshop in the Mystic Ruins. Knuckles and Amy had followed him there, because they were all anxious to see if Tails could locate Sonic. Tails opened a small door in the side of one of the machines in the room. Then, he sat at the computer and began to type like mad. All that Knuckles and Amy could see was a flurry of incomprehensible text flying up the screen. Tails pressed one final key and waited for results.

"So Tails," Knuckles asked, "explain again how you can use this to find Sonic?"

Tails was willing to explain as simply as he could. "Sonic mentioned before he left that the Time Stones are similar to the Chaos Emeralds. If the two stones generate a similar enough energy field, then one can be used to track the other just as easily as two Chaos Emeralds could be used to find one another."

"So, what's the difficulty with finding Sonic?" Knuckles questioned.

"First, the way the Little Planet moves erratically, it's impossible to know where it is at any given time. The only thing that we know about its patterns is that it returns to low orbit around Mobius—the planet we all lived on before we came here—once each month. Apart from that, the planet's warps are entirely unpredictable. This means that Sonic could be anywhere in the entire universe, and a greater amount of the universe is outside of our range that is in our range."

"Is there any way we could increase the range of your detector?" Knuckles continued to ask, curious.

"In theory, if we had more Chaos Emeralds, my machine could generate a larger field of energy. A larger field of energy would allow us to detect stones in even the farther-off corners of the universe. Corners being a figurative term, of course," Tails replied.

Amy had an idea. "Knuckles, don't you have the Master Emerald? Wouldn't that give us a huge field of energy?"

Knuckles responded, "Say, that's not a bad idea. I'll go to Angel Island to get the Master Emerald and bring it back here. Just sit tight until I get back, alright?"

Once the past variants of Sonic and Tails were gone, modern Sonic leapt down from his ledge. He then watched as the heroes of the past boarded an elevator. The elevator left, and Sonic waited for a few minutes, just to see if it would return, but it didn't. Sonic was forced back onto his ledge, where he saw a roof above the elevator's destination. Despite his best efforts, Sonic couldn't reach the edge. Pulling out a Ring, Sonic attempted to power up his jump.

Sonic was successful to the end that he reached the high ledge, but the only thing up there was a short hallway leading to a wall. On the floor was a gray television monitor. Sonic looked at the screen and saw that the display was flashing between snow and a small blue circle. Sonic spun and jumped onto the monitor, breaking it. A blue energy shield formed around Sonic. Satisfied, he jumped down to the platform below.

Despite his new shield, Sonic was still stuck. The elevator had not come back yet; it was clear by now that it was not going to come back. After a moment's thought, Sonic became curious about what the elevator would be modified into in the future. Sonic approached the elevator shaft and summoned his orange Time Stone, then cast its light onto the place in front of him where the elevator platform would be. A glass tube faded into view, with a door outlined on the front. Sonic could see the effect move all the way up the shaft, modifying it into a glass transport tube.

Once again satisfied with his handiwork, Sonic slid the door open and stepped in. The door closed and Sonic was sent flying into the air at borderline-Mach 1 speeds. Sonic was confident about his estimation, since he was very familiar with the feeling of travel at the speed of sound. Sonic was stopped by an unidentifiable force at the top of the shaft. The top door opened and Sonic stepped out. He realized that a floor plate had slid into place underneath him inside the elevator, and that was what kept him from falling.

Sonic continued to press onward and saw the floor in front of him clear out into a void. Looking outward, Sonic realized that this was another giant pinball table, so he jumped down onto the left flipper and was launched directly into the slot machine. The reels spun for longer than usual, but settled on Sonic's face, Tails' face, and a bar. Sonic dropped down and hit a bumper, which saved him from the pit at the bottom and sent him to the right flipper. Sonic launched off of this one and hit the slot machine again. This time, the first two reels landed quickly on Robotnik's face. Fearing the worst, Sonic's fears were proven when the third reel also landed on Robotnik's face. A ring of spikes was launched at Sonic, popping his shield.

Sonic then fell out and hit the bumper, only this hit wasn't enough to propel Sonic to a flipper. He hit the slanted floor below and was dropped into a tunnel identical to the one in the bottom of the first pinball table. This time, though, the loop he was sent into didn't have any Rings in it. As Sonic exited the tunnel system, he unrolled into a run and was struck with terror as he saw a sign a few feet away. He hadn't located Robotnik's machine! Sonic ran through the sign, as he saw the tunnel behind him close up, and then inadvertently hit a future sign before him. Sonic was already running, so against his will, he was sent back to the present.

Once in the present, Sonic noticed that there were many more robots than there had been at first. Sonic was eager to find any escape, so when he saw another future sign, he quickly hit it and spindashed, sending himself into the future. Hoping that somehow his past form had triumphed, Sonic was disappointed that the future was a wreck. It still bore some resemblance to what the casino might look like in the future, except for the fact that the area looked like a federal disaster area.

Sonic continued with dashed will until he saw a row of enemies just asking for it. Sonic pulled out a Ring and used a supercharged spindash to destroy them all in one shot. The dash sent Sonic rolling through a loop and into another giant pinball table, this one ruined. At the top was Robotnik, in a cockpit overlooking the table, and on the sides were spikes. "So, Sonic, do you like what I've done with the place? I can tell you that I like it much better than if you had intervened at all. But luckily for me, you were too busy playing pinball to stop me."

Sonic wasn't in a mood for words, but he was filled with rage on the inside at Robotnik's arrogant comments. Sonic jumped down onto a flipper and launched himself straight at Robotnik's window, but a bumper sent Sonic astray, into a spike strip on the wall. Sonic bounced off and watched the remainder of his Rings fall away between the flippers, into nothingness. Sonic landed and launched again, but this time he missed the bumper and hit Robotnik's cockpit. This shattered it, forcing Robotnik to flee, but Sonic still didn't have a way out.

Landing on a flipper a third time, Sonic launched himself exactly as he had before and went through the hole left by Robotnik's retreat. On top he found a past sign and passed it, and ran fast enough to return to his present time. In the present, Sonic was surprised to see his plane, the Tornado, parked on the ground in front of him. Sonic was confused, because he thought that the Tornado was on Earth. Then he realized that the Tornado on Earth was Tails' new purple one. The red one was older, and was sitting here.

It was wrecked when Sonic last saw it, and Tails used it to test his Chaos Emerald-powered repair system. The machine went awry, though, and the plane disappeared. Sonic now knew two things: first, this was where the machine sent the plane; and second, the machine worked, despite its major flaw. Sonic saw the remnants of Old Angel Island in the sky above him and knew that he had to use the Tornado to fly there.


End file.
